G.R. No.

L-5 November 16, 1945

CO KIM CHAM ( alias CO CHAM), Petitioner, vs. EUSEBIO VALDEZ TAN KEH and
ARSENIO P. DIZON, Judge of First Instance of Manila, Respondents.

Facts:

Co Kim Cham (petitioner) has a pending civil case (Civil Case No. 3012) with the Court of First
Instance of Manila which was initiated during the Japanese military occupation. Petitioner filed a
petition for mandamus requesting that the judge of the lower court be ordered to continue the
proceedings in civil case No. 3012. But, judge Arsenio Dizon refused to continue the proceedings
on the said case on the ground that a proclamation issued by General Douglas MacArthur had
invalidated and nullified all judicial proceedings and judgments of the courts of the Philippines
and, without an enabling law, lower courts have no jurisdiction to take cognizance of and continue
judicial proceedings pending in the courts of the defunct Republic of the Philippines (the
Philippine government under the Japanese). Furthermore, the respondent judge contends that the
government established in the Philippines during the Japanese occupation were no de facto
government.

Issue:

a.) Whether the government established in the said Japanese occupation is in fact a de facto
government.

b.) Whether the proclamation by Gen. MacArthur declaring that all laws, regulations and processes
of any of the government operation in the Philippines are null and void and without legal effect in
areas of the Philippines free of enemy occupation and control, has invalidated all judgments and
judicial acts and proceedings of the said court

.Ruling:

Taking into consideration that fact that according to a well-known principle of international law,
all judgments and judicial proceedings which are not of a political complexion of the de facto
government during the Japanese military remained so after the occupied territory had come again
into the power of the titular sovereign, it should be presumed that it was not and could not have
been the intention of Geneal MacArthus, in using the phrase “processes of any other government”
in said proclamation, to refer to judicial processes, in violation of said principle of international
law.